Vindicators on the prowl

[Brumbaer]

Haven't found a sub-forum for Battle Reports, so I put it here.

 

Reason for this one was a discussion about the worth of Vindicators. I thought they have their place, but found a lot of disagreement. So I set out to find how they fare in game life instead of theory. I sent three out to gain some insight.

 

In their first game I rolled abyssal, not only for the Vindicators, for all units, so that doesn't say much.

In the second game, they did very well in the first turn, much worse in their second turn and in the third turn they were dead, because of bad "foot" or should that be "track work". That my opponent hunted them down was no help.

Last week was their third and probably last chance to show their worth.

 

3k game. My opponent played Blood Angles with a Custodes contingent for good measure. 40 Tacticals in 3 Units with Bayonets, Nuncio and Artificer Armour. 10 Command Troopers with Jump Pack and Spear and a Chaplain. 8 Dawnbreakers with Praetor. One of us must have mixed something up, because the Praetor should have been with the Command Squad. 5 Angel's Tears. 4 Custodes with Character and Librarian. Telemeon, Derdeon and Contemptor. Lots of 2+ save and jump packs and some Dreadnought to round the list off. very close combat. I played generic Legion Astartes. Lots of Bikes and very shooty.

We rolled for setup and mission and got Search & Destroy and Blood Feud. We both decided on hunting infantry. My opponent won the roll and decided to setup and go first.

 

You might wonder about the way we set up miniatures that is because we usually only use area terrain. We treat all area terrain as difficult. Ruins give a 5+, forrest 6+ cover save. LOS goes out of and into area terrain, but never through.  The border of the forrest is defined by connecting the trees with a line. The ruins enclose the area between 2 L shaped wall segments.

 

We both set up as expected. My opponent as close as possible and as far out of LOS as possible. I wanted to be as far as possible away from him, but close enough so I would be able to shoot even if I stole the initiative. Notable exceptions the Lascannons, which I would prefer not to move and who hopefully would be protected by their reputation, the ladies with the melter guns, as the would deploy in a Rhino and be out of range anyway, and the two assault squads, which I put in deep strike. More to keep them save for a turn or two, than to attack the enemy. The Recon Troop was deployed to be able to snipe the Librarian.

 

 

I kept honest by not stealing the initiative.

My opponents infantry switched flanks to avoid the fire power at the top edge of my deployment zone. He put all his Dreadnaughts there, to keep my troops busy. Exception the Custodes Squad acompnied by the Librarian which stormed into the center. Relying on their sturdiness and with the goal to bring the Librarian into the game. My opponent had deployed his Deredeo too far in the back, or I too far from him, so it was out of range. So the Contemptor opened the dance and challenged the Lascannon Ladies.  Obviously he wanted to decimate them and to draw my reaction. I gave him his wish, but didn't try to save my models. Instead they shot back. He killed a single trooper and I destroyed his Contemptor. The ladies have a fierce reputation, well-deserved, if I may say so. But now his Librarian had free reign and pinned the Lascannons. The Telemon being out of range shooting was done. Getting Lascannons pinned hurt, but having destroyed the Contemptor made up for it.

 

In my turn I did the great shuffle. A shuffle here, a shuffle there, to get as many shots on the Custodes as possible. At the eastern edge the Tacticals had to move so the Bikes could pass as they ignore terrain but not models. The Tacticals on the western side fell back.

The only thing that didn't fall into this pattern, were the Recon Marinesses. I was happy to sacrifice them, if they'd only kill the Librarian. They managed to hit him 3 times and all hits were rending. But he rolled two fives. With the Librarian still alive and nothing really under threat - besides the Recon Troop, i decided to do it the hard way. Kill the Librarian by killing all models around him first. Everything but the Javelins, shot at the Custodes and with the last shot the Librarian died. From the 6 models 3 were killed by Vindicators. That's 6 wounds out of 15. That was ok compared to the 10 Lascannons and 6 Melter and 6 Plasma Cannons. The Javelins did 2 wounds on the Telemon.

 

 

Unsurprisingly the BA raced forward. Many to hunt down the Recon Troop. The Deredeo to get into firing and the Telemon to close combat range. Man is that Telemon slow. The Deredeo was just in range of the Tacticals in the east, but his template scattered and killed 2 Melter Bikes instead. The Telmon was not only slow on his feet. He fired at the Lascannons, all hits saved on the Sergeants armour and was blown away by the ladies, literally. Ok it was to be one of those days. The Recon Troop lost 3 by fire from the pointy guys. Just making the charge more difficult by an inch or two. It didn't matter; they rolled a 3 for the charge, they wouldn't have made it anyway. His Tactical Squad in the forrest tried the charge despite needing a 12, and failed as expected. My opponent started to show nerves.

 

 

I tried to keep my distance and still to maximise fire. The Javelins didn't understand that concept, but to be true they had to make way for other units and  were ordered to draw fire. The Recon Troop stayed put, because I didn't want to bring the enemy nearer to my other units. I hoped to pin an enemy unit, so I didn't move them at all. The Vindicators killed 4 of the Pointy Sticklers (That's ok considering they evaded). The other 6 were shot down by Lascannons and Melter Bikes. The chaplain survived. The lone Vindicator missed the Dawnbreakers, probably blinded by their private rising sun. The Recon Troop hoped to pin the Tacticals in the forest, but didn't do so and was shot to pieces instead. The Deredeo took 2 wounds from the Javelins.

 

 

More of the same, but now the Angles were close enough to charge. The Melter Bikes closed to the advancing Dawnbreakers, hopefully to draw the charge and if not at least to prevent multi target charges. The Deredeo fired at the Javelins and for one a Dreadnought survived the counter fire. After the BA Tacticals in the house shot at the Javelins only one was left and he was on his last wound and did a strategic withdrawal, wise decision. Everything else forewent shooting for charging.

The Recon Troopers got wiped out. The Dawnbreakers decided to ignore the Scimitars and tried to charge the Tacticals in da house, but failed - he was really unlucky. They probably had broken dawn, but not their fast and were just not ready for close combat.. The Chaplain charged the Infantry in the south. Thanks to the dices the Tacticals managed a draw.

 

 

Everything looked well and than I set out to botch it. Two major mistakes in one round is very disappointing indeed. I moved in for the kill of the Dawnbreakers. They used the chance to react with advancement - they might now be noonbreakers. The reinforcement rolled a three and I choose to have them appear far away from his infantry killers, so I thought. He played the Deredeo for the first time, so I didn't really watch out for it and he intercepted one of the units killing 8 out of ten.  I might try to excuse that with the newness of the Deredeo, but for what I did then, there is no excuse. I let the Melter Ladies fire at the Dawnbreakers at point blank range. And of course they were charged with the help of the special BA reaction. That was so dumb. I know they can do it and I had enough other stuff to fire first. I killed 5, but instead of wiping out his unit I now risked to loose 2 of my own units (Melter Ladies and accompanying Character). Luckily I placed the Vindicators so they were in range of his Tacticals in the south, anticipating an early death of the Dawnbrealkers. The Vindicators killed 10 of them the other 2 were killed by the Melter Bikes. Chaplain and the first squad tried to charge the Tacticals occupying the house in front of them and were shot to pieces. The second unit made the charge and rolled badly. Still winning and routing the opponent, but not destroying it. Miserable. Badly played round. That wasn't round at all, round as a triangle. The Melter Ladies learned about hurt, but stood, because they were lead by an Herald. This wasn't the turn of the true believers and the BA chaplain died in the fight against my Tacticals in the south. Chain bayonets, 2 points, well spent.

 

 

The Angel's Tears advanced towards the Tacticals to avenge the Chaplain. The Deredeo moved to reduce the amount of fire he would draw. The Tacticals in the north rallied and consolidated toward my assault troops. The attraction being strong seemingly. Everyone that could shot at the assault troop reducing it to 4 models, but they stood fast. The Angels's Tears charged the Tacticals successfully, but the close combat was annything but. Despite just above a million attacks, they only killed one and the Tacticals fought them to a draw. Did I mention chain bayonets ? Dawnbreakers and Praetor, couldn't wipe out the Melter Ladies and the Herald locked in a challenge did refuse to die. The Praetor had sent in an underling to be free to work his devastating smile on the Melter Ladies, but only one sank to his feet.

 

 

In my opponent's turn the Assault Troop stood fast, in my turn they ran fast. As far away from any enemy as possible. All the Infantry moved, so they would be able to charge the Angle's Tears. The Vindicators wiped out 10 of the 15 Tacticals. The Bikes and Javelin killed the remaining models and all but one model of the other Tactical unit. The combined might of two Tactical Squds a Laser Squad and a Master of Signals killed the Angel's Tears in Close Combat. The Melter Ladies were wiped out, but the Herald survived.

 

 

We had a turn left, but my opponent conceded.

 

Close to everything was against my opponent from the beginning. The mission didn't force me to move. He could have played a game of dare with the one to move first likely to loose. But thanks to my Bikes and Vindicators I could have worked my way around his flanks to get the first shots in. Loosing two Dreadnaughts in counter fire was unlucky, but he could have chosen different targets. He had some unlucky rolls, but so had I, a lot of templates went astray, besides having Nuncio-Voxes. I already covered my major mistakes, so I will not repeat them (here, I'm sure I will repeat them on the battlefield).

 

But the question was, were the Vindicator worth it. They killed 3 Custodes, 4 of the Command Troop and they killed 20 odd Tacticals (Some with Multi Melter shots). The enemy troops were quite packed which helped the Vindicators. It's easy to say "that will never happen to me", but it shows, that if you have to choose between cover/no LOS and dense formation and no cover/LOS but wide spread, dense often wins. Please note we play terrain as blocking, so we have probably more spaces to hide and more reason to stand close.

The Lascannons were better thanks to counter fire. All other units were less successful. Especially the Plasma Bikes were very disappointing in this game.

Usually I would take 2 Predators for 50 points less. 8 Melter Shots and 4 Lascannons. They would supposedly have killed the same number of Custodes but more Commando Troopers. They would have been hard pressed to kill as many Tacticals. If you take into account that the Vindicator is reinforced and the 3 have twice the number of HP in total, it might even out. They are good against hordes of Tacticals and have a decent chance to kill a Sergeant in artificer armour (42%) and Custdoes, because of instant kill.

Still I think I will restrict them for special games, just because I like the Predator model better.

[Marshal Mittens]

Seems like a fun battle! You really destroyed them! Vindicators seem pretty strong up close!

[Brumbaer]

Thanks for your answer.

Yes to all three.

I play quite often against that opponent, so we don't have any rules discussions with hardened points of view. He is easy going and so it's fun to play against him.

I really destroyed his army this time, but usually it is more close. The first two turns are often mine, the two turns he gets in CC are his and the fifth turn decides who wins.

I find Vindicators do not look too bad on paper and they are quite cheap. In my games they did okay and in this game quite well. Not as bad as their reputation by far. But I find many people devaluating them are fixed in their style of play and choice of units. The same seems to be true regarding artificer armour, reactions and deep strike/interceptions.